Rooted & Rising: Stories of Transformation, Intuition, and Soul-Led Healing

45: Wine as Medicine: Sacred Ritual & Conscious Drinking w/ Sophia Cecilia

• Tara Mychelle • Episode 45

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In this episode of Rooted & Rising, we explore wine as medicine, story, and spirit. What if the glass you hold isn’t an escape… but a portal to presence? I’m joined by Sophia Cecilia, a wine professional and shamanic storyteller who bridges natural wine, indigenous wisdom, and ritual to help us remember the sacred inside every bottle. 

We talk about wine as ceremony instead of numbing, how alcohol is highly programmable with intention and prayer, and why so much mass-produced alcohol carries the imprint of greed, disconnection, and burnout in the body. Sophia shares how working with small artisanal growers in Europe, volcanic soils, storm energy, and biodynamic practices opened her eyes to wine as a living, elemental ally—not just something to “drink to forget.” 

You’ll hear about:

  • Seeing wine as spirit and alchemy, not just alcohol
  • How intention, blessing, and ritual can change how wine lands in your body
  • Why natural, artisanal wines feel different than industrial alcohol
  • Climate, soil, and planetary rhythms as part of the story in your glass
  • Turning holiday drinking into sacred, conscious celebration instead of self-abandonment 

If you’re rethinking your relationship with alcohol, curious about natural wine, or craving more intentional rituals in your daily life, this conversation will shift how you pour, taste, and commune.

Guest: Sophia Cecilia – wine professional, shamanic storyteller, “speaker for the vines”  find her on IG: @thealchemyofwine

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Host: Tara Mychelle, Rooted & Rising

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Speaker 1:

In today's episode, we're exploring wine as medicine, story, and spirit. What if the glass you hold could become a portal? Not just to pleasure, but to presence. I'm joined by Sophia Cecilia, a wine professional and shamanic guide who bridges the worlds of natural wine and indigenous wisdom, inviting us all to reawaken the elementals within every bottle and shift our relationship with this ancient Elixir. Let's do this. Welcome to Rooted in Rising. I'm your host, Tara Michelle, intuitive guide, storyteller, and fellow traveler on this wild path of becoming. This is a space for the soul led, for the ones unraveling old stories tending to their healing and rising, not perfectly, but powerfully into who they are here to be. Here we explore what it means to live with intention, to love with depth, and to trust that even the hard things are shaping us. I'll share pieces of my own journey, the cracks, the beauty, the breakthroughs, and invite voices who are walking this path too. Because I believe life isn't happening to us, it's happening for us. So come as you are, root in and rise up. And thank you. Truly thank you for being here. Welcome back to Rooted in Rising, everybody. So glad to have you with us. I am excited to be sharing this guest with you today. And especially as we roll into this beautiful holiday season, it's this is a perfect episode for the perfect time because you will want to uh listen in and definitely, you know, get yourself some really beautiful wine for this holiday season and new year. But I am joined today uh by a beautiful woman, a beautiful soul, and we are going to journey into this sacred story inside the glass of wine. And we're doing that with Miss Sophia Cecilia. She is a wine professional as well as a shamanic storyteller. And for over a decade, she's worked alongside small artisanal growers around the world. And through her studies with indigenous uh lineages across Central and South America, she's learned to see wine not as an escape, but as a connection. And what I love to say is she she calls herself a speaker for the vines, and she is just that. So together we'll explore how the earth, sun, and the waters and the people behind each bottle hold a frequency and how awakening that energy can transform how we taste, how we celebrate, and how we commune with the spirit itself. Welcome to the show, Sophia. I honestly am so honored to have you here and I'm so excited to be talking about this. And I have to say to all the listeners, so I just met you last week and you held a shamanic ceremony around wine, and it knocked my socks off and literally changed, I swear, my life. And it changed my whole context around alcohol, but more specifically wine. And I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna hand it over to you. You sat down and you said, I am the speaker for the vines. And when you said that, and even when I say it now, it like reverberates through the room. And I was like, Oh, she's the speaker for the vines. What do the vines have to say? Yeah. And so I just want to thank you for being on the show and introduce you, Sophia, which I've already done, but welcome to the show and tell us a little bit more about who you are. And now, are you a Sommelier?

Speaker:

So, I mean, technically, no. Sommelierers go through a very specific training. I went through a different training um called WSET, uh, that is more looks at the macro picture. Sommelier has a lot to do with table service and presentation. My customers are sommelniers, so I them, I educate them, I like have that direct um line, but I went through a different training system. And honestly, most of my training happened in the field, so to speak. Um, the best, you know, it's good to learn all of these things in a classroom setting, but as they say, you know, you learn the rules so you can break them. Absolutely. The more I learn about wine, the more I realize it is infinite. Um, and the more I realize I don't know anything at all. And it is forever humbling and forever inspiring, which is why people can dedicate lifetime, if not lifetimes, to it.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

And um, but yeah, it's it was nice to have that framework in the classroom setting. So I could then go out into the field and be like, okay, based on, you know, these theories, this is how this should work according to these weather patterns. But what am I tasting in the glass? And this is giving me a different experience. And then again, you gather those rules, if only just to then break them and you know, deeper levels of understanding, like everything in life, right?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes.

Speaker:

And pastor, you have to throw the rule back out the window.

Speaker 1:

Yes. Oh my gosh. Well, when you know, and really what had me want to have you on the show is this show is really about um, you know, how life is happening for us. It's not happening to us. And it is called rooted in rising. And so my whole experience in your event last weekend was like, we're rooting and we are rising into this whole other context around this beautiful vine that grows. And I do want you to share about some of the wines that we we drank that night, because I think when people really get that context of what it takes to have these vines grow and what they're actually producing, and then all the medicinal peace that goes into it. So I'm just gonna hand it over to you and let you do your thing. So tell us more about all of that. Yeah.

Speaker:

I mean, there's so much to say. I mean, say it all, Sophia. Say it all. Say it all. Um, well, I'll just go back to your earlier question as well, which was kind of like, who am I and where do I come into this? Um, I have studied uh with wine um and vinerons and in this field professionally for almost 15 years, starting in London and then moving over to the United States. I'm blessed to work for a company that supports all small artisanal growers in Europe that have carried on these generational lineages in some instances for 15 plus generations, which is incredible.

Speaker 1:

People need to get like that's 300 years or more, which is amazing. Yeah.

Speaker:

It's amazing. Um, and I shared a little bit about this in our ceremony, but even now you hope, oh, maybe my kid will take over the family business, right? Maybe my kid will be a doctor too. And you hope that for one generation. But can you imagine making wine in the 1600s and hoping and thinking and believing that 15 generations later, every single iteration of the family will want to continue being farmers. That's a huge, huge ask. That's a huge twist of fate. And it's um, you know, it's gone through periods of being really, really rocky because first the biggest period that we faced was the era of industrialization, where a lot of people were kind of wowed by this ideal of going to work in cities and create an easy life for themselves and, you know, live the more fast-paced world. And so a lot of people abandoned their family farms and moved to the cities. Um, and then there was in more recent years kind of like a wave coming back again to uh, you know, establish themselves in the family farm and bring that all back to life. Uh, but then we see it now again. Um, and I think that there's it's a pressure cooker. There's a lot of things that are at play. And no small part of that is just the cost of living and how hard it is for farmers to make a living. They they will always say to me, they're like, you know, Sophia, I'm land rich, but I'm actually kind of poor in my day-to-day. But that means that the next generation could choose to sell their, you know, 10 hectares in Margot and get 10 million euros overnight, or they can farm every day for the rest of their lives and hope to generate that as revenue. So it's really, really hard to argue with these young venerons, that's the French uh word for winemaker, uh, when they see an overnight easy way out, right? And but I can only imagine the burden of carrying all of that ancestry behind you and that it's not an easy decision to make. But it is because it truly is on you. It is on you to change the whole direction of your whole family line. Yes. And that and climate change are the two largest issues that we face today in the wine world. But more of a reason to kind of awaken people to why wine is so sacred. Uh, because I do think that that's part of the reason is that there's just the wine world has been really overrun by a lot, a lot of producers, and a lot of them are doing it in such a just traditional or holistic way. So that's part of my inclination for returning people to this understanding around wine, as well as there's a few parts to it. It's to preserve these sacred lineages, it's to help people understand that everything in our life has the potential to be ceremony and ritual. It can see all the layers of spirit behind it. And wine is the perfect example for that because in a glass, I always joke, it's like a genie in a bottle, right? Yes, it's just longing to express itself with this myriad of mysteries and nuances, and it's you know, like reaching your hand into Pachamama and just pulling out a small piece of her essence and pouring it into a glass to express itself and express itself through you once you take that in, which is even, yeah, it's very powerful. It's very powerful, and so it's it's you know, it's a small glimpse at of something that's very potent, but you know, how can we extend that to live all of our life with more ritual and more connection to the food that we eat, to the people that we commune with, the wine that we put in our bellies. And I think that the ancients had a really clear understanding of that. And there's something that could be very deeply medicinal about wine or alcohol in general, and we've lost touch with that.

Speaker 1:

And I experienced that with you last weekend. And I it was it was so beautiful. It even the next day had me walk out on my own land and recognize I really have to be the steward of this little acre that I have. And I already have always felt that I am the steward of the land, but there was a whole different experience. And one of the things I took away from that night with you, um, and and I've known this, but I really felt it deeper, is that the land here is dead, as in mineral dead. It's no longer mineral rich. And I struggle to grow things on this land. And I was really listening, like it needs help and support, and it needs to be replenished and rejuvenated. And what was interesting to me is what is it that has happened that has actually had the land dead in, you know. Um not that that really matters, but I look at it from that perspective of what is it that I need to bring back? And also I'm very careful about not putting a lot of pesticides out. You know, I try to do the very bare minimum, given that we live in Texas and have a ton of bugs, but and I live in the country. So there's tons of scorpions and all kinds of things. Everything. Yeah. And so really looking at how do I do that? But also the land keeps telling me, and I actually want to talk to you about this another time, is that I need to start having events like you did on the land. Right. So to really regenerate the whole energetic spiritual, the frequency, like that whole holistic experience. And so that was a little bit of a side note, but I would love for you to talk about more. You know, you really, because you talk about climate change, you really went into, and people, when you hear climate change, please don't go to the space of like whatever you're hearing in the media. That's not what I'm talking about. That might be what is all talked about, but what I took away when you said climate change was really thinking about where these vines are growing, what they're faced with climate-wise. And yes, there's going to be impact based on how our current climate system is going. But I would love for you to share with people to really understand the climate in which they're growing in and what that requires of them, because I took that away too.

Speaker:

So yeah, we can we can do it definitely a little bit of a side note on the climate change because it's to your point, it's like it's a very um tense word that's powered a lot of sins. Yes. And it's it was really interesting for me to learn working with these farmers that it doesn't necessarily manifest in the ways that I think it's going to. Yeah. The intense solar years, as we call them, lots of heat, lots of sun, not a lot of moisture is real. That is definitely real. That's that's we're creating wines that inevitably are gonna have higher alcohol, more concentration because of that intensity. Uh, there's also drought, which is gonna, you know, cause some shriveling and a lot of stress for the vines as well. So it just it creates a style of wine for starters. And neurons are having to be incredibly on the front foot of mitigating that with you know creative techniques such as looking at their canopy management, right? To protect the grapes from actually getting sunburnt or from getting too shriveled. But the other part of the equation is um just climactic variation. So getting intense hail storms in the spring. So all of the hail knocks off your bud burst before it's even set in. So you lose your whole crop before the summer has even started, before the growing season has even started. Or perhaps even more tragic is to have that happen in the fall. You know, these vinerons have to make the decision, oh, do we harvest today or tomorrow or next week? And it's the ultimate gamble because you might choose to wait a few extra days to achieve just a touch more of that physiological ripeness, and then you could lose your whole crop overnight. The storm comes. Yeah. And then the third part of that equation, as we're looking at all the seasons, is the winter. The winters aren't getting cold enough anymore, which means that the vine, part of the essential natural part of the life of the vine is to enter a state of dormancy in the winter. It hibernates like a bear, hibernates in its cave. And that enables the plant to really rejuvenate itself. And if it can never enter that state of dormancy and it's always in a state of kind of low-key stress, then that's going to cause a lot of weakness in the vine as well, and a lot of susceptibility to other things. So it's, you know, we're in this big, uh, beautiful biosphere, ecosphere where everything interacts with balances with everything else. And nobody is more aware of that than the farmers. And they are really the final frontier for that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So powerful. It's, it's, yeah. Okay.

Speaker:

Well, I'm like, I'm like, keep going, keep going, keep talking. Well, I would love to kind of come back to, you know, we've talked about the background of wine and vinerons, but the other part of what I do is I've been studying with um indigenous wisdom keepers all around Central and South America for the past uh almost two decades. And it was has been really interesting to combine my two loves under one umbrella. I'm like, okay, there's something here in the wine world that I sense intuitively as being incredibly sacred. And then I'm learning all of these things in my shamanic studies that teach us how to see the world through a lens of more sacredness. So how can I merge these two things together? Right. And alcohol was a really kind of easy one in many regards because um there's a few energetic principles that can be applied to alcohol. So alcohol is viewed as fire and spirit in the shamanic realm and lore, it literally can be used to transform dense energies, it can carry the power of prayer and intention, it can be used to open portals, uh, but it's always really important with uh the intention and the quantity because too much fire burns instead of purifies. And then you have the energetic principle of uh like fermentation, right? Which is the ultimate form of alchemy. You're turning sweet juice into living spirit. And, you know, I look at alchemy within our own body. It's like we're always going through hardships in order to alchemize into something that is a beautiful nectar for our souls or something that makes us more stronger and potent. And I see that as embodied in wine as well, as it goes through this beautiful alchemical transformation. It has this beautiful ability to connect heaven and earth, much in the same way that humans do. You know, we walk upon the planet, we are connected to Father Sky, we are connected to Pachamama, and we act as this conduit of energy, bringing those two worlds together. And the vine is the ultimate expression of that in so many ways. You literally have roots that are digging under the earth and accessing the planetary movements through the soil, because the planets are very active in the soil, and as are the microorganisms and all of Pachamama's medicine. And then you have the branches reaching up for the heavens and capturing the essence of the sun and the wind and the humidity and the moisture and whatever else is moving through the world. And it brings those two things together in a beautiful expression, which we then capture and alchemize and turn into literal spirit to bring into our bodies.

Speaker 1:

And I love that you say that because I think people, um, those that are listening, I think everybody knows that we call alcohol spirit, but I think people aren't connected to what that really means. And then what we talked about last weekend is that, you know, if not honored properly, it will turn into spirit of which you don't want to have any access to, because that would be dark, negative spirit, whatever is actually absorbed into, you know, we talked about greed or the corporate side of alcoholism. Um, but also what you're talking about is that beautiful spirit that's then encapsulated through the vines, through the root, through the fruit. And then we can actually uh, you know, speak prayer into it, intend it to be, and then consume that. And one of the things I do want you to touch on too is, and by the way, y'all, that's that's spirit, that's what we're talking about with spirit. So there's you know, there's one way to look at it very negatively, but there's also this beautiful context in which I think initially is what was always meant to be created. But one of the things you talk about is the planets being connected. And as those vines are in the ground, at some point, if we can talk about, because you had talked about how in the wintertime actually there's so much more going on when most of us think winter as dormant, but actually, no, that's when the most interactive alchemization or whatever you whatever the word is is actually happening underground.

Speaker:

Right. Yeah, there's so much to touch on with what you just covered.

Speaker 1:

Um I think this could be a three part series. Well. Definitely dive deeper again.

Speaker:

There's lots of good, yeah, good juice there, pun intended. But yes, so first of all, you spoke about the idea of um, you know, greed and consumerism and then how can that can affect the spirit, right? And you're consuming that. Yeah, that's what woke me up to this as well. Was um, you know, one of the things that makes alcohol incredibly powerful is the fact that it's incredibly programmable. So for anybody that has any sort of shamanic background or experience with shamanic healing, you know, we use Mapacho, which is sacred jungle tobacco, and we program it to uh carry prayers, to do limpias, to do cleanings, clearings, protection. It is one of the most powerful plants in existence, and you can program it to do what you need it to do. It wants to help us, it wants to support us. And like all really, really powerful plant spirits, um, they're some of the most dangerous ones as well. So tobacco, you know, is one of the biggest killers on the planet. And it brings us back to that idea of it's all about the intentionality and it's all about the quantity. When when used with the right intention, tobacco has the power to heal beyond imagination. And the same thing applies to alcohol. Alcohol is incredibly programmable. So it has the power to carry intention, spirit, uh, healing capacity, you know, realm opening, all of the things. It just needs to be programmed well. However, there's the dark flip side of that, which means that it can very easily carry the imprinting of things that we certainly do not want to be imbibing into our body, things that you talked about, like greed, consumerism. And so I saw that with big champagne houses, I saw that with big, you know, tequila brands, I saw that with anything that is produced in really large quantities, literally carries the imprint of greed, consumerism, ultimately poison for the body. And you know, people are just at bars taking these things as shooters and it goes straight into your body, straight into your bloodstream. And it's gonna lower your vibrational frequency. Yes, right?

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

And that happens. Um, it starts with how it's being grown. So, you know, especially with something like wine, you want something that's being grown organically, naturally in the earth. You don't want to be, you know, putting herbicides, pesticides, first of all, for the physical level of what that does to your body. But energetically, if you're poisoning the earth which grows the vine, then you're giving it a message, right? Um, which is that of I want to just kind of produce and produce and produce and consume and create alcohol to help people forget.

unknown:

Yes.

Speaker:

As opposed to I want to create something that's medicinal that helps people connect with the earth, that helps people connect with their body. When you consume a wine, first that is grown well because that is the original imprinting on the wine that is made well by a Veneron who is a steward of the land and is a steward of the traditions.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

And that sets you up for success. And then the third part of that is how are you interacting with what's in front of you? Can you yourself program it and be like, hi, wine? Thank you, Earth. Thank you for this beautiful gift. Thank you for the essence of the sun and the moon and the stars and the minerals that are being infused in this beautiful concoction. Like, can you please bring the medicine that I need to your body? Can you please help me release the things, the inhibitions that are holding me back from my truest expression? Can you please help me connect more deeply with my essence, with the earth, with all the things that surround me that want to support me? You know, whatever your prayer might look like. And it carries that intention and it carries that programming. And then you bring that into your body and it activates. It's like we're literally programming what could be medicine for our bodies.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And I will speak to that because as I had shared with you, I don't really drink anymore because of that effect that I would feel, especially because I do a lot of energy work with people. And I would, I there there came a point in my life, and actually I blame it on menopause, but or maybe I was just waking up to stop putting shit in your body. But when I would drink, it would literally feel like every cell was melting, like I was just melting. And then I would just feel like a truck hit me after a single glass of wine or single glass of vodka. And it got to the point where I was like, I just won't drink. Then learning all of what I learned last weekend. And I did not drink very much, but I decided I'm gonna drink what you pour. I'm gonna drink it all, you know. And I think, I don't know, I think I had a total of maybe a half a glass of wine. But given that I don't drink that much, a half a glass of wine will do something to me. I did not feel anything melting. As a matter of fact, I felt more uplifted and more in love and in this peace because that's what I was speaking into my glass was love, peace, and joy. And even I thought, oh gosh, I have to drive, you know. I drove fine. I didn't feel like I drank a drop. And that was the difference was the intention and how it was operating inside of the cells of my body. And it was totally different. Now, granted, had I had a glass or two, I shouldn't drive. But what I wanted people to really hear is that speaking an intention into every glass that you poured for us, it it was really, it was really a different physical experience in my body, like 100%. And I was blown away by that.

Speaker:

Right. Yeah. And I mean, we drank maybe a glass over the span of two hours. Yes. And so there's it's almost like a homeopathic dose. Like you don't have a lot for it to be medicinal and good for you. And you can activate it in such a way that you can really reap the benefits of it, right? Yes. A lot of people do, you know, as I alluded to before, like they drink to forget or they drink to numb themselves. And unfortunately, that's become a byproduct of our society. But I looked to all these ancient cultures that really revered alcohol, and I'm like, what is the medicine here that they were tapping into? And there is a medicine there. You know, I shared this in our ritual as well, but I'm somebody who is very Capricorn and can get very into my intellectual center. And wine can help me just like, you know, to sit with a glass of wine and watch the sunset. I can just drop out of my head, drop out of my ego, drop into my body and just connect to spirit in a way that is ritualistic and ceremonial and intentional. You know, I have a really long, busy day at work and I can come home and have half a glass of wine and just like dance around the kitchen and make dinner with so much love and with such beautiful intention. And I like that it can be this beautiful ritual in our lives. And um, you know, again, I shared this in our ceremony, but when we look to the ancient traditions, I'm so inspired by how they worked with wine or continue to work with wine. I come from the Jewish faith, and uh every Shabbat uh begins with a kiddosh, which is a prayer that's said over wine, and that literally translates to sanctification. And the idea is that life can be ordinary and busy, but through the act of ritual, we pause, we lift the cup, we make a prayer, and this moment becomes holy. And so it becomes a bridge between the mundane and the divine and a way to usher sacredness into daily life. Love that. Even in Jewish weddings, bride and groom share from the same cup, and it's symbolic, it's union, it's shared destiny, it's sanctification of joy. It's, you know, it's this beautiful ritual that just adds depth to it's a reminder to add depth, to add purpose. Um, I had a wise man in the Andes once say to me, There's a piece of my brain that is always in prayer, and my footsteps are always actively creating blessings upon the earth. And I was so floored by that. Yeah. Like floored by that.

Speaker 1:

Right. Like everybody take that, please. Take that for yourself.

Speaker:

There's a part of my brain that's always in prayer, and may my footsteps always be creating blessings upon the earth. And the amount of presence that is brought into that practice and the amount of ritual and ceremony is the goal, honestly. That's what I'm working towards.

Speaker 1:

Right. I love that because I feel that I'm often, you know, as you say that, I was like, I'm always in some form of prayer. There is a part of my brain that is always asking, speaking for, thanking, in gratitude. But I love the footsteps creating the blessings. I don't think about, I don't, I don't, I would say the majority of us don't think about the footsteps that we walk on this planet. We're just trying to keep up with the mundane and the insanity of like the go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Speaker:

Survival. Survival, and we're conditioned to operate that way. Absolutely. Um, things like wine become tools for our evolution when it shows us how to live more ceremoniously, right? Or even simple things like you can apply this to your coffee, your morning coffee. Like, where did this come from? You know, what lineages existed? What piece of land made it possible for this to be in my cup this morning? And maybe go off a little bit to the backyard, you know, raise it up to the sun and a toast. It's like, how can we create little moments of ritual and ceremony to bring us back to the fact that life is sacred and that, you know, there's so much here to be accessed, so much joy, so much beauty, so much wonder. And that's ultimately what we're here to do as humans upon this planet. And we're conditioned to forget.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And what I hear bring us back when you say that is you're really activating all that is in that moment. You're activating the nature around you, activating all the gifts and the blessings sitting in front of you. It's like you are activating that gift of life versus I had a really rough week. I can't wait to crack open a bottle of wine.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

That's a different context because that's the context of I can't wait for this to numb me and forget. And why numb? Like I had a really insane week, and I can't wait to crack open the bottle of wine and speak love and richness into it and have it bloom and smell it and purify my body in that way. Like it's just this simple tweak of a context can totally change. Yes. It's so powerful, changes everything.

Speaker:

Yes. I mean, I like to use the example, which I think I referred to with you previously, of Dr. Emoto's uh when he was working with water as a frequency, and he was able to prove that you know water has its own form of consciousness, and we have the ability to essentially form it and program it with our thought patterns or whatever else. So he played, you know, beautiful classical music to some water as it was freezing, and it created these beautiful ice patterns. And then he created really like, you know, heavy metal music for the other part of water that was freezing, and it created incredibly jagged patterns.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

And so literally proving, you know, what Shintoism has always been alluding to, what Buddhism has always been alluding to, is we have the ability to consciously craft our reality. And what is Shintuism? Shintuism is the um, it's a form of kind of Japanese spirituality. Ah, okay. Uh-huh. Okay. And it's it's working with these elementals actively with our thought to co-create our reality around us, right? Yes, yes. And so, as you point out, like just that little shift in how you're communicating with your wine, especially, especially because it's such a programmable thing, spirit alcohol, even more so than water, is gonna carry that vibration and you're gonna bring that vibration directly to your body.

Speaker 1:

And uh in Dr. Moto's work, you know, yes, he played the music, but he also just put words, taped words on glasses, on glasses of water. And so when you think about, yes, I'm gonna say this, and I don't know, maybe one day they'll hear it and they'll shut me down. But hey, if you were drinking the water, liquid death, you are literally putting in death into your body. I just whoever is behind that brand, yeah, shoot me down, whatever. I don't care. Like, no, don't shoot, don't shoot me down. Yeah, don't shoot me down, but I'm I'm gonna speak my freedom to speak. The moment I saw that, it just drove me crazy. I thought, are you kidding me? That is no accident. Yeah, and I remember so when you know the big music festival, ACL, that's all they serve now. And so, yeah, that's all they serve. And so, um, aside from just drinking the tap water, and I remember somebody got that for me and I was like blessing and speaking into it. And I poured it in a different cup and then blessed it and blessed it because I thought I'm not drinking that, you know? And and when you think about all the alcohol that's sitting on a shelf that we buy has all kinds of verbiage on there. And so, what better opportunity to learn that you can reactivate it once it goes into the glass and you can speak newly into it? And as you're talking, I keep hearing, I hope somebody hears this episode because I'm not interested in doing it, but they open up a beautiful bar that is totally set around, you know, any alcohol that comes in was all created with intention and love and like have people have this amazing experience around alcohol in a new way because it really can be medicinal, you know. I was wondering, I was wondering. I was like, that's what you should do. We're in the best city to do that, you know, people will be all for it. Especially because we have all the whiskies and all the like all the things that all the distilleries that we have here in Austin, Texas. I mean, we have and we have the wine, the wineries, you know, we have all the the people there. But yeah, it's it's it really, it really is a shift in context. And it's just one simple tweak.

Speaker:

It's one simple tweak. It brings ritual, it brings sacredness. And to your point, like so much of what we're consuming could be so poisonous and we don't even know. And alcohol is such a it's such a challenging one. You know, you talk about liquid death just as a name, but with something like wine, unless you really put effort into understanding where your wine comes from, then you know, there's a lot of producers out there that are not just putting herbicides and pesticides into their vineyards, but they're also, you know, using food coloring, using sugar, using all sorts of additives, tons of sulfur preservatives, things that they don't even have to really list on the label. And that's why for some reason it's really a gray area and there's not a lot of transparency. And unfortunately, even just the simple organic label is not enough because that's a form of like greenwashing, right? And there's there's you know a huge area that is falls under organic and what you can still apply. And also you can be um, I see advertise these like no sulfur wines or no sugar wines, and people go for that because they're like, Oh, it's just the I'm just looking at the ingredients, right? But when I see that it breaks my heart a little bit because I'm like, you're taking a living, beautiful entity and you're stripping it of its natural layers, and that's not good for you. That's not good at all.

Speaker 1:

Because that totally changes the compound.

Speaker:

It changes the compound into something that has been like dissected, right? Yes, yes. They're so much better off to find a producer that is carrying a tradition, that is a humble, humble steward of the land, that is putting lots of love and good good practices into their soil, that is moving out of the way in the cellar so that the the earth can express itself in the way that it longs to express itself. And sure, it might have sulfur because it's a natural byproduct of the fermentation process. It might have some sugar because grapes carry sugar, but it's a real thing. It's a real thing, it's organic. It's organic, organic beyond the definition of organic.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly. It it is, is it is the essence of the vine and the fruit. It is the essence of it. So this is a great segue. If you wouldn't mind going into you, you had brought four different wines. I don't want you to go into all four, but if you wouldn't mind talking about maybe one or two of them, how they were how they're grown, what you saw, so that people really understand what it takes to actually create that which is in the bottle.

unknown:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And and the beauty. Like there's so much beauty in it.

Speaker:

Yeah. So there was, um, I'll speak to two of them. Uh the first two that we tasted. So the first one was Neumeister, which is the name of the producer, and it's his Straudden Weiss Burgunder. So Straden's just the name of the village or town that he's in in Austria. And Weiss Burgunder is the separate or the grape varietal that he is working with in this bottling. And it is such a powerful place. I've been blessed to visit these places and to walk these lands and to breathe this air and to touch these vines. And this was a place that really, really struck me as a power place, honestly, like from a shamanic lens, a power place. It is in the southeastern corner of uh an area in Austria that's called Vulcan land, which translates to the land of volcanoes. So it's where Austria meets Slovenia meets Hungary. And he tenderly farms 30 hectares on these incredibly steep hillsides in this corner of Austria around the town of Straden. And what is a hectare? Oh goodness. I forget the exact translation, but it's like two acres-ish. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that's acreage. Yeah. It's tiny, tiny. Um, but this area is so powerful, as I mentioned, because it's Vulcan land, right? So it's these old, ancient volcanoes that are created these hillsides where he's growing his vines and they're incredibly steep. So we're talking like 65% gradient. Everything has to be done meticulously by hand. And though that wasn't challenging enough, he is in an energetic climactic vortex, right? Because you have all of these crazy wind patterns coming from every direction. So on the western side, you have the Alps. And so coming down off the Alps are these really cold alpine winds. On the eastern side, you have the Paeonian Plains, which is the largest steep in Eastern Europe. So it's these hot, hot plains of Hungary where hot air currents are just sweeping across the land, completely uninterrupted, across a whole half a country, because it's just open grassland, right? And then from the south, you have the ocean currents coming up from the Adriatic. So that brings moisture. And so this one location acts as a place where all of these influences come together and they come to a head and they meet each other. And from those wind patterns is birthed storms, right? Exactly. Coming with humid air, that is the recipe for a storm. And so this land to me held this super potent storm energy. And I think you were sharing, you know, as you were drinking the wine, you were like, this felt like a lightning bolt. Like it felt activation.

Speaker 1:

Yes. I literally saw the vines light up like lightning bolts in the ground. Yeah, it was beautiful.

Speaker:

I know a lot of shamanic traditions work with storm energy. Storm energy can be an ally to actually like harness. So to have that captured in a bottle, in a glass, that you can activate with your thoughts and your stories and your prayers and your intentions and say, you know, power in. Energy of the storm that is, you know, beautifully captured in the essence of this wine. Like I activate you to like enlighten my inner world, like bring spark and energy to my life, you know, like work with that as an ally, as an energy that is being captured in this beautiful, in this beautiful bottle.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

And then on top of that, he is working, as I mentioned, on these volcanic soils, right? And volcano has a super powerful spirit that beautifully pairs with that spirit of the storm, because the spirit of volcano is, of course, that is that of fire. So this wine is born from fire. The roots mingle under the earth with solidified magma in a state of perfect tension and grace with all of the weather currents. And so every grape is going to carry this element of fire, which, as we talked about with spirit, is the ultimate transformer and the ultimate purifier, right? Yes. So we're have this beautiful mineral essence that is this volcanic soil coming up and meeting the power of the storm and converging in the body of a vine that is then longing to express itself through grapes that becomes alchemized as it goes through fermentation and turns into this powerful elixir that, you know, you bring all this awareness to it and you're like, whoa, how could this not be medicinal? Right? How could this not be a powerhouse?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so I love that this wine for me, you know, teaches that transformation is not destruction. It is creation through the essence of fire. It is a reminder that, you know, even as we live our own lives, the pressure and the heat that we endure is a forge for awakening, for transformation. Yes. It's the same way that the pressure of the storm and the essence of the fire of the earth creates this forge for the wine to be alchemized and to be transformed into something that is greater than its parts, its individual parts. Yes.

Speaker 1:

And you're drinking that. Drinking that.

Speaker:

And it's so great if you're a bloodstream, right?

Speaker 1:

That's simple. I always like, as you were explaining that and even tasting it, I just felt like the mineral rich density of what my body is consuming in that moment is what's power. Like that's that's how it felt to me. You know, it's like that's power because you're bringing all those elements together, and we forget that we're elemental. We ourselves are an element. We are what 98% water or whatever that is. We forget that we are elemental.

Speaker:

Yeah. We are water, we are stone, we are fire in our spirit, we are air in our breath, we are all of it.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

Yeah. So we're kind of designed to merge with those energies and be enhanced by them. But all it takes is this like awareness, right?

Speaker 1:

And we forget. I'm sorry to jump in. We forget that we are a product of this. Yeah. We evolved from this. We are this. Sorry, had to throw that in there because I'm just like, whoa.

Speaker:

No, it's it's so true. It's you know, the the earth is reflecting us, and we are reflecting the earth. It is part of our essence, it's part of our birthright, it's part of our very DNA structure.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

And it's amazing to have that kind of embodied outside of yourself in something as simple as a glass of wine.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker:

And how easily we can turn that into something that is sacred just through awareness and storytelling. And, you know, I like to put a bottle of wine on my altar before I drink it and just sing it a little song of gratitude. And it's something simple as that that just kind of like wakens it up to this power and this appreciation. And so to go back to the Neumeister, this is this is Christoph that's tending these vines, and he does it fully organically, meaning not putting any chemicals in the soil, which as you can imagine is incredibly challenging when you're in an area that is this stormy. It takes a devout level of dedication to the vineyards to be doing everything on these steep slopes meticulously by hand. And because of the steep slopes and because of the weather patterns, you get something that we call in the wine world a diurnal shift. So that's literally the transition in the daytime to nighttime temperatures. And when that is drastic, you get more complexity in wine. It's remarkable. It's one of these like magical qualities. It's like through contrast, we create something that is complex. Again, such a beautiful metaphor for our existence, right? Yes, yes. And that's what's really perfectly encapsulated in this amazing little biosphere that is strod in in the Vulcan land that is being yeah, just express through the vines. It's remarkable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so beautiful. It's so beautiful. It's funny because as you're talking, like, all I'm thinking is of the food that comes from that region and mixed with the wine. I'm like, oh my god, I bet it's just so amazing.

Speaker:

The Europeans are really onto something with that.

Speaker 1:

They think it's yeah, the whole pairing of wine with food. I'm like, oh my god.

Speaker:

Like, of course. Yeah, they actually think it's quite crazy that we drink wine without food. Right? Yeah, right. They're like, this is literally a match made in heaven. This is what it's designed for. Gource your body, go nourish your soul, go kick.

Speaker 1:

Not to mention mention it, it helps in the digestion on a level, because it it's all working together. And I I really feel that we really miss that when we're just in that um very western busyness of life is that we really miss all those beautiful components of what's really happening and the intention in the food, the the things we drink, even the things we do, you know. We we really do live out of intention most of the time. So hence why I brought this episode, y'all, because I just wanted to bring people back to the roots of something really beautiful.

Speaker:

Something so beautiful. And that's something that we're the Europeans definitely have managed to preserve it because it's the integral part of their tradition.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And when you look at all of those components, it's seemingly simple, but the significance of it is kind of like the Jewish kadush that we talked about. It's like the families and friends come together, they open wine, they they eat food that comes from the land, um, and they have community. And I think that that's something that we do less well, right? Um, and you know, I remember I had an Italian roommate once, and he was just so confused by the idea of local. I was like, oh, let's go to the local farmer's market. He's like, Isn't everything local? He's like, in Italy, everything comes from like a kilometer of my house. I was like, oh honey, like, welcome to New York City. Right, exactly. It came miles, ships and all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And there's yeah, there was a real sense of disconnection there. And I would love to, you know, extend this wine ritual one day to include the food component as well, because all of these things can be applied to our food, and our food can be medicine for our bodies if we honor where it comes from and if we, you know, eat intentionally and all of those things. So yeah, it's just an extension that needs to happen.

Speaker 1:

So, what is the other wine you're gonna talk about too? I know. I'm like, I'm looking at our time, like, oh my gosh, we could go on for hours, but yeah.

Speaker:

It's true. Okay, so we'll we'll share this other wine then, uh, because there's a lot to say about this one. Um, yes. And again, maybe we'll have to do a multi-part, but I think we might have to. We'll start at least to share the story of Bodopivots. So that's the name of the producer, and he is working in a remarkable part of the world called the Carso. Uh, it takes the name from being the Karst Plateau, which is this incredible limestone plateau in eastern Italy that borders Slovenia. So we're just south, actually, of our previous wine, right on the Adriatic. And it is a remarkably unforgiving terrain. If you can imagine just the it's like windswept, dusty limestone plateau uh with the glistening ocean in the distance. And the only thing that can survive there is vines, you know, just like clinging on for dear life and some shrubbery because it is a raw, raw, raw, raw landscape. And um, ironically, poor soils actually create better wine. And again, it comes back to that analogy of like through hardship, we create something that's so beautiful, but it's because they have to dig so deep to extract nutrients and they channel those nutrients and microbial expressions of the soil through, you know, a fewer number of grapes because they can't be overcropping and overproducing because they're kind of surviving. And so you get this sublime, complex expression of the soil channeled through a few number of grapes because the soil is so poor. So that's the kind of landscape we're working with here. And Paolo is on another realm. He is, you know, one of the most soulful winemakers I've ever met. And he's so he does it in such a way that it's not even intentional. Like he's not woo-woo. He's like a man that, you know, walks around in overalls and looks just like an everyday farmer. But some of the things that he says, I'm like, oh, you are an old soul, my friend, who is just here to honor the earth through the expression of the vines. So he he dug up all the kind of like international varietals that his father had been growing. Um, you know, even though those would be, you know, much more profitable, easier to sell, because he's like, Vutovska is an indigenous varietal from this part of the world, and it is the only varietal that is fully capable of expressing the nuanced essence of this Carso landscape.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker:

So he dug up everything just to plant eight hectares of Vitovska. And these are wines that are literally on their own plane of existence. In his in Paolo's own words, he says, you know, I work to overcome my own ego in order to render wines that are pure expressions of the plateau. And he's essentially working in service to spirit when he wants to think about it that way.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes.

Speaker:

And so he makes skin contact wines, which has really become a fad, uh, the orange wine concept, right? But in reality, this was a way of making wines here in this eastern part of Italy and in Slovenia, hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, um, where you would ferment the white grapes in contact with the skins. And it's become a trend now, but it had a lot of really, really practical reasons for being made that way back in the day.

Speaker 1:

So um when you say in contact with the skins, explain that to people who may not understand what you're saying.

Speaker:

Sure. So when you make wine, you bring the grapes in and you press the grapes, right? So you're suddenly have skins and you have juice. And to make a normal white wine, you will just take that juice and take it to be fermented. If you want to make a red wine, uh, you will ferment the juice in contact with the skins because the skins are what hold the pigmentation.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

And so you're fermenting skins in contact with juice to really extract that color. To make an orange wine, you take white grapes, but you make it like a red wine. So you press the grapes, you take the juice, and you ferment it in contact with the white grape skins. We say white, but they actually have a color. So that's why you get that sort of amber orange or golden or whatever it might look like, depending on the skin. Every grape has its own, you know, color intensity.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

And the reason that it was done this way traditionally is because the skins act as natural preservatives. So you don't have to add sulfur because they didn't have the ability to add sulfur back in the day. And the other reason being that the skins hold a lot of yeast, natural yeast. And so, again, back in the day, when you didn't have warehouse manufactured yeast, factory manufactured yeast that you could just, you know, squirt into your vessel and kickstart the fermentation, um, you wanted all of that extra yeast that was hanging out on the grape skins. Um, and now a lot of natural producers just have to rely on the ambient yeast that's in the cellar to take that risk to be like, okay, are you going to kickstart the fermentation and are you actually going to finish it? Or is it going to start fermenting and then stop? And so you're reliant on natural yeast for that, but it's an extra degree of terroir, an extra degree of a sense of place, is to have natural yeasts in the fermentation, as opposed to they make yeasts in factories now that can impart flavors on your wine, right? Interesting. So that makes something that's not a true essence of that.

Speaker 1:

It's like all the artificial things we have to do now to create or make things. I mean, it's it's like such a common, unfortunate practice that we've done. It really is.

Speaker 2:

It really is.

Speaker 1:

But also, I I would assert that goes back to climate change. It goes back to all the things like now you're hoping and praying. Like, are you product, wine, you know, grape or fruit going to make what I need you to make? And are you going to finish? And that's yeah, that's very interesting.

Speaker:

It's an example for sure. And, you know, he uh he ferments in this way partially because it's traditional, partially because he doesn't want to have to put any additives in his wine whatsoever. So he's utilizing those natural preservatives and yeasts in the skin, and also because in his mind, the skin is a part of the terroir expression, right? It's a part of you know, everything that the grape has harnessed through the roots, through the vines, through the branches, and brought into these little grape bundles. Part of that is on the skins. So he doesn't want to discard that. He wants to capture all of that, all of it, yeah, part of his expression. It's fascinating. It is fascinating. And so, I mean, this cellar, let me tell you, is the furthest thing from modern. Um, you know, you go down into his cellar, and I was taken by the fact that I was like, wait, this is just an empty room. You're like in this beautiful cavern under the earth, and there's nothing there. And then you can kind of just hear this little bubbling in the background. And I look down and I realize that he is fermenting in the traditional style, which is amphora, or as they call them there locally, quervi, that are amphora jars that are buried under the earth for their fermenting process. It's incredible. So um in his in his mind, uh, when I asked him, I was like, you know, obviously this is the tradition, but what is the what is your reason for doing this? And he says, Oh, well, I want my wines to ferment in harmony with the cosmos. And he said it so nonchalantly. And again, I can't even begin to describe what a non-suspecting farmer this man is to have something like that come out of his mouth. I'm like, you're incredible. You're incredible. Um and you know, the reason that he said that, and you touched about upon it in one of your questions earlier, is that in a lot of these um ancient traditions and ancient beliefs, the earth is most active in many ways uh in the wintertime. You know, everything on the surface goes dormant and goes into hibernation, and that's when the plant, the earth and everything under the soil really awakens in many ways. And that's why these plants, you know, as we talked about, have to be dormant in the winter to really access that, you know, essence in the soil. And you biodynamics, which is a form of farming that's very holistic and very, very, you know, incredible in all the things that it takes into account. But it talks about, you know, certain planetary movements that are super active and awakening uh elements under the earth during the winter time. And that's you know, I could go on to that.

Speaker 1:

That's a whole nother that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother episode, yes, because I'm very familiar with that.

Speaker:

Yeah, so but he's capturing that essence of the planetary movements uh and how they affect the planet by fermenting this under the earth, right?

Speaker 1:

Amazing.

Speaker:

It's amazing. And so I love, you know, if if the Neumeister wine that we spoke about earlier is this idea of like fire and storm being forged in the kernels of the earth and creating something that's like this powerhoused expression. For me, this wine kind of represents the opposite. It's like you bury the the wine under the earth, and it's this representation of stillness, something that's meditative, and yes, it's almost a form of surrender.

Speaker 1:

It's like you're just and you taste that when when we when we drink that, you you the the difference, you you feel it, you feel it. It is like the difference of smelling lavender versus I don't know, um pine or cypress. It's like distinctive. Yes, it's very distinctive in the flavors and how they bloom in your mouth. And I remember um I remember that one uh that was focused on the skins. Like I could literally taste the complexity of the skins in that one. Like you could taste the you taste it. It's just fascinating to me.

Speaker:

It holds that. There's so many pieces of it that's going into the puzzle, right? Because we talked about the landscape and like wind, barren, you know, plateau of pure stone where nothing can survive with just like this glistening ocean in the distance. And it takes just such a level of dedication to operate on this sphere. It's like any lesser man would maybe go a bit crazy because it's just so witched and so barren. And he's harvesting and harnessing these beautiful expressions of the earth and then honoring these ancient traditions by fermenting under the earth, you know, in in harmony with the cosmos and activating the planetary movements in his wine as it's fermenting and then moving that juice into these ancient barrels for it to sit for three or maybe four years to consider the pro like continue that process of, you know, being in barrel, there's this oxygen exchange that's happening because barrels are slightly porous, right? It's just going to show wine is a living and breathing entity, right? It carries energy, and that energy is fueled by this oxygen interplay while it's aging under the earth in you know, this beautiful cathedral of stone that is his cellar. And you can just see all the different types of limestone in the walls of his cellar as you're under the ground, and the wine is just like uh gestating in this beautiful cathedral of stone. I say cathedral, it's a tiny little like hobbit hole, basically.

Speaker 1:

Space, yeah. But the experience, the feeling, the energy. Yeah.

Speaker:

He's so in tune. He'll be like pointing at the soil that's exposed on the wall of the cellar, and he's like, see the color here? That's how many million of years old that part of limestone is. And this is why I grow this parcel here. And do you see the slight differentiate differentiation there on the color of the limestone? It comes from this era. And I bottle those wines separately, and I'm like, this is all just limestone. And he sees the nuances of the earth and he dedicates himself to capturing it, even though I have no idea how this man makes a living growing just Votovska that he has to age for like six years um under the under the earth. But it's just such a pursuit of passion and dedication and ultimately reverence, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, and and and God provides. God provides.

Speaker:

Yeah. God provides. You know, my shamanic teacher uh talks about how actually it's pretty common for old souls to come back and become. Um, winemakers. Um, I would imagine because of what goes into it. Because of all of this, and because as well as what you say, the utter belief that like I will be provided for. Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Because you are literally coming back to be the steward of the land.

Speaker:

The steward of the land. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm I'm definitely waking up to that in this lifetime. Like steward of land, steward of money, steward of my child. Um, even when I say my child lately, I'm like, he's not my child. I birthed him, but he is not mine.

Speaker:

He moved through me. There's a yeah, he he is himself. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he is himself.

Speaker:

And uh he is his bow that shoots the arrow that is your child into the world, but then they're their own thing.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And and it's and I think because he is becoming more of who he is, because he's 14 now, and and I realize like he is mine, but he's but he's not mine. He's he is he is himself, and and I am just here to steward him through the journey, and then eventually. So yeah, it is very beautiful. Literally, I know we could go on for hours. What I would love to do, because this is a holiday episode and also your birthday coming up in a few days. So I want to say happy birthday. But I I love that this episode's coming out around the holidays, and um, I hate to wrap it up. I feel like we're wrapping it up short, but there's because there's so much to say. But I would love for you to share where people could uh maybe access the wines that you're talking about, or you know, how can people begin to look for wines that you are talking about? Like, what are things like you can't just walk into the you know liquor store and be like, I'm just gonna look for some wines. Like, where could they find some of this, or how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, to assist them on that journey.

Speaker:

Absolutely. Um, you know, I wish it was easier. Right. I wish it was just like one label you could look for that would tell you. That's why we already know what you're supposed to do now, okay? You need to go create that. Make that its own ritual. Like this is a puzzle that you have to figure out, right? And my best clues for you would be find a small independent retailer that you trust that has curated a beautiful selection and ask their opinion. Like, what wine is small, artisanal, you know, family-grown production. I steer people to Europe because I think that they do this just more naturally. So European wine, and that is either organic or biodynamic or just artisanal. Oftentimes, small producers don't pay to have that designation put on the label because it's very expensive. And they're like, I've been doing this for generations. Like, why would I pay someone to come tell me that I'm certified organic, biodynamic to put that on my label? So unfortunately, that's not, you know, uh Welcome to America. Sorry. Like safe solution. So find a small retailer that you trust, get recommendations, find an importer that you trust. So importers are the people that bring these wines into the US, and every importer has a style, and every importer has like a base level um, you know, requirements. So, you know, I I'm working for Rosethal, like all of our wines have to be made as traditionally in a way as possible in harmony with the land, um, from small artisanal producers, and there's a lot of importers that have a similar philosophy.

Speaker 1:

And will we be able to put a link to that in because I would love to put a link to your importer if possible in the show notes? Yeah. And I think the words here to everybody to pick up from are artisanal, biodynamic, uh European, imported, European. Like those would be words that you could maybe use when you walk into say your local independent store.

Speaker:

Then you're gonna find a style that you like and you can follow that thread. And then some other recommendations for you know, me personally is I have an Instagram that I'm gonna become even more active with, and it's called Alchemy of Wine. And we'll put that down there too, yeah. And that will have, you know, posts on specific wines that I'm loving at the moment. And so then you can kind of go out to a shop and be like, this sounds delicious. Like, where can I find this? So for recommendations, you can look to my Instagram page. And then my website that I'm about to launch that we can put on the uh the links as well, is you know, ritualalchemy.com. And there I'm gonna post my events that I'm doing and with a dream of hopefully one day running retreats to Europe as well. Um, so all of that information will be on the website.

Speaker 1:

I so see that in your future. Like literally, I just keep intuitively, I'm like, oh, that that's already done. That's already happening. Yeah, I I do the the brick and mortar piece is very interesting to me too. I'm like, we should talk about that because I'm like, I see that for you. It's it's really um because it's what's missing. It's what's missing.

Speaker:

Um yeah, this call back to reverence, to connectivity, to sacredness. Yes. Yeah, and just communion and connection. Yes, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Oh, I just Sophia, I just thank you so much. I because literally I feel I'm like, I could talk to you about this for hours. Yeah. It's fun. It is really fun. I'm like, I want to do what you do. Um, but it it is, and I I really hope, I hope listeners, all that are listening or watching, um this I wanted to share this because it is so beautiful, because it is bringing everything back to the roots of who you are, the truth of who you are, to rise from wherever that truth is. And that was really what I experienced. And then you being a speaker for the vines and and bringing these beautiful families and their rituals and their creations and what that takes, and really taking all of that as a metaphor for your own life and begin to look at your life from that perspective and begin to look at everything that you drink from an intention, everything that you eat from an intention. And even now you mentioned with every step forward, every footstep on the ground is an intention and a blessing. Because yeah, and I see it's funny, I see like every foot that hits the ground, it's like energy, energy, like an a wave of energy goes out. And we have really lost that and forgotten that as an overall whole. I know there's many of us that are bringing that message to the world, but I think collectively to really start listening and looking at your life from that perspective, that that that little shift right there can shift that can move mountains. It could really move mountains.

Speaker:

It's the butterfly effect, it's a ripple effect.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes.

Speaker:

You know, when people feel at a loss of like the world is you know going in a dark direction, and what can I even do? Yes, simple as that. Yes, simple as living my life with intentionality, with blessings, with prayers, and that really ripples out whether you're conscious of it or not, to your families, to your communities, to the plant. Yes, that is the force field that we need right now.

Speaker 1:

Yes, is what we need to do. That is, yes, I'm shivers all over. Like that that is all we do in this darkness. That's it.

Speaker 2:

That's it.

Speaker 1:

That is really it. And I I try to explain that on many of the episodes is that hey, I all day long, you want to climb a tree, you wanna, I don't know, you wanna go protest, uh whatever. If that's what you want to do, I'm all for it. And the other piece that I tell people when they're like, Well, I can't believe you're not doing this, Tarum. Why aren't you doing this? And uh, because you know what? My job right now is just to root in and spread love. Yeah, because my little one drop of love a day ripples out. That's what's needed. And I and you know what I could get all crazy about watching the news. I could do it. I don't want to. I don't want to. Cause that's I it's funny when I see it as a the download, like the image that I see is like like it's like this capsule of darkness, and uh, and it's required. The capsule of darkness is required for the consciousness to really wake up as a collective. And now all we have to do is stop plugging into the darkness and start rooting into love. Right. And then it ripples, and the next thing you know, that big cloud of darkness becomes light. And that's really how I see it.

Speaker:

We feed that with fear or with anger or with resentment of the way things are. Yeah, and it's as you say, like, can we just come back to center and root in love and and you know, celebration and joy?

Speaker 1:

And all you have to do is take care of your family, your neighbors, and just be love. And yes, you can be aware of what's happening. I'm not saying don't be aware, be aware because you do might you might have to go out and make a choice, but the more you root into that love and stay out of fear and do the things that make you feel good, do the things that have you feel joy, that's that's what transforms it. Absolutely.

Speaker:

So love through wine, people love through it. Yes, love through wine, love through joy, love through dance, love through prayer, all the things.

Speaker 1:

Yes, all the good things. I thank you so much. You are such a beautiful soul and such a beautiful person. I just I'm so honored and excited that I got to meet you last weekend, and I'm really just it's been a pleasure having you on the show. So thank you. And we will do it again.

Speaker:

Let's do it, please.

Speaker 1:

Everyone very well this holiday. Happy holidays. Yes, and happy birthday to you. And uh yeah, so thank you everybody for listening, and we'll see you on the next show. You can connect with Sophia Cecilia and learn more about our shamanic wine journeys through the links in the show notes. And if you're craving your own energetic realignment or one-on-one guidance, there's a link in the show notes to connect with me as well because I would love to explore a session with you and help you come home to your energy and rise from there. Until next time, I want to wish all of you a beautiful, blessed holiday season. I will see you after the new year. Cheers to 2025 and let's ring in the new year, 2026. I want to say thank you all to my listeners. Uh, thank you for keeping this show going. It has been a pleasure being with all of you this last year, and cheers to this new year. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Have a blessed holiday season. We'll talk soon. Thank you for rooting in and rising with me today. If something in this episode stirred something in you, take a breath, take what you need, and let the rest soften. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss what's next. And if you feel called, share this episode or leave a review. It helps the space grow and reach others on the path. Until next time, may you walk with trust, speak with love, and rise in your own time. I'm so grateful you were here with us, and thanks for being here. We'll see you on the next episode.